Using x-rays for artistic purposes can reveal the hidden structures found inside everyday objects and within nature. Photographer Nick Veasey has produced a beautiful series of x-ray images of flowers, showing us the skeletons of these delicate blooms – all that is unseen by our eyes when we look at them.

“We live in a world obsessed with image,” says Veasey. “What we look like, what our clothes look like, houses, cars… I like to counter this obsession with superficial appearance by using X-rays to strip back the layers and show what it is like under the surface. Often the integral beauty adds intrigue to the familiar.”

“We all make assumptions based on the external visual aspects of what surrounds us and we are attracted to people and forms that are aesthetically pleasing. I like to challenge this automatic way that we react to just physical appearance by highlighting the, often surprising, inner beauty.”

Veasey’s other x-ray work includes telephones, motorcycles, musical instruments and many other objects. He created a structure he calls “The Black Box” filled with several different x-ray machines and a film processor, with a heavy lead-lined door that seals in the radiation. Check out the process at his website.